In court over ‘English-only’ fine
AFORMER teacher and education officer for the Welsh Government will appear in court today for refusing to pay a parking fine that was in English.
Toni Schiavone, from Saron near Llandysul, refused to pay a parking fine as the penalty notice and all subsequent correspondence was in English only.
Mr Schiavone was fined with a parking notice in a car park in the
Ceredigion seaside village of Llangrannog in September 2020.
The car park is under the management of One Parking Solutions, which has its headquarters in Worthing in West Sussex.
According to Welsh-language pressure group Cymdeithas yr Iaith, Mr Schiavone contacted the firm requesting the penalty notice and further correspondence in Welsh several times. He stated he would only pay the fine if it was served in Welsh.
Prior to the court hearing, he said: “In an area as Welsh as Llangrannog, why can’t we expect a Welsh-language service? I have asked several times to get the penalty notice and correspondence in Welsh, but One Parking Solutions has refused, arguing that it is a company based in England and that they are not obliged to issue the penalty notice in Welsh.
“It would be nothing for them to issue a penalty notice in Welsh, but they have ignored the request and decided to take me to court. They are the ones causing trouble for themselves.”
He added: “This clearly shows the need to extend the language measure to include the private sector. ... Clearly legislation is needed to put expectations on them to provide a Welsh-language service. It’s been more than 10 years since the Language Measure was passed, and the Welsh Language Standards have a made a difference in the public sector – more people can and do use Welsh-language services provided by their councils and so on. So when will we see the same change in the private sector?”